A wave propagation problem for non-uniform screw dislocation motion in a viscoelastic half-plane

The wave propagation problem for a largely arbitrary anti-plane displacement discontinuity imposed along a line perpendicular to the surface of a stress-free linearly viscoelastic half-plane is considered. The general Laplace transform solution is obtained and then inverted for the case of a screw dislocation moving at an arbitrary speed in a Maxwell material. It is shown that the material viscoelasticity alters the coefficient of the dislocation edge stress singularity and damps the surface displacements from the elastic values. The surface damping increases with time, distance from the dislocation path and dislocation speed, whether sub- or supersonic.